The Seeing of the Tathāgatagarbha Differs from the Seeing of the Sixth and Seventh Consciousnesses

When the six consciousnesses do not exist, does the tathāgatagarbha still see dharmas? When the six consciousnesses do not exist, other dharmas also do not cease; as long as dharmas exist, the tathāgatagarbha will see them, because the tathāgatagarbha has never been apart from all dharmas—wherever there are dharmas, there is the tathāgatagarbha's function of upholding them. Is the seventh consciousness, the manas, the perceiving-aspect of the tathāgatagarbha? The manas is not the perceiving-aspect of the tathāgatagarbha; when the manas does not exist, the tathāgatagarbha can still see karmic seeds. The dharmas that the tathāgatagarbha sees are more numerous than those the manas sees; the dharmas that the manas does not see, the tathāgatagarbha still sees on its own. In nirvāṇa without remainder, the tathāgatagarbha can still see dharmas and see seeds, and the five universal mental factors—manaskāra (attention), sparśa (contact), vedanā (feeling), saṃjñā (perception), and cetanā (volition)—continue to operate as usual. The manas and the tathāgatagarbha have different "eyes," and therefore the marks they see are different: one sees worldly dharma-marks, while the other sees non-worldly dharma-marks.

The six consciousnesses are not the perceiving-aspect of the tathāgatagarbha; the tathāgatagarbha does not see all dharmas through the six consciousnesses. The tathāgatagarbha has the perceiving-aspect of its own substance, which is precisely the five universal mental factors: attention, contact, feeling, perception, and volition. After the tathāgatagarbha directs attention toward a dharma, it contacts the dharma; after contacting it, it can receive and accept it; after that, it discerns it; and after discerning it, it knows the dharma. This is the perceiving-aspect of the tathāgatagarbha, the form in which the tathāgatagarbha sees dharmas.

However, the content and substance of the dharmas seen by the tathāgatagarbha are completely different from those seen by the six consciousnesses. The dharmas seen by the six consciousnesses all fall within the appearances of the six sense objects, grasping the marks of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and mental objects—these are worldly dharmas. The dharmas seen by the tathāgatagarbha do not fall into the appearances of worldly dharmas; they are not form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or mental objects. The mind consciousness cannot understand what the tathāgatagarbha sees, and therefore the perceiving-aspect of the tathāgatagarbha is not the five consciousnesses or the sixth consciousness. Yet after the six consciousnesses see dharmas, they have a certain effect on the operation of the tathāgatagarbha. This effect is manifested in how the seeing of the six consciousnesses can influence the manas; when the manas is influenced, it will give rise to corresponding decisions, and the tathāgatagarbha will then operate the next dharmas in accordance with the manas's decisions, and new dharmas will be produced.